Netflix takes OTT service to Danish fibre firm Waoo!

As it pursues its new strategy to take its over-the-top (OTT) offering to pay-TV platforms like Virgin Media in the UK, Netflix has signed up Waoo! as its first such TV provider in Denmark.

Established in 2010 as a joint marketing and production house of 14 Danish energy companies in the fibre network, Waoo! currently has a customer base of over 270,000 and a turnover of $500,000 and claims to be able to reach about a third of all households in Denmark.

The Netflix service will be implemented in the latest generation of AirTies TV set top boxes, which were distributed to new Waoo! customers in the early summer. Customers with older models will be offered an upgrade to the new model at what the service provide calls “an attractive price”.

"From an international perspective, we're a small company, so we are very proud to partner with the world's leading provider of Internet TV,” commented Waoo! CEO Anders B Christjansen.

“Co-operation between Waoo! and Netflix is ​​obvious …There is now a battle between traditional TV operators whose strategy is to sell as large TV packages as possible to customers, and so those of us who can see an up-side to offer our customers more choice. We do not believe that it makes sense to invest staggering sums in developing our own competing solution when we can cooperate with the world's best provider of Internet TV. The partnership with Netflix probably will not be the last.”

"We want to make it as easy as possible for the Danes to experience the wide variety of entertainment such as Netflix offers,” added Joris Evers, Netflix director, global corporate communications. “Being available on Waoo!'s TV box is part of our strategy to let the Danes turn on Netflix on the same device as they watch broadcast TV and other cable services."